• Scientists

• Science publishers

• Science funders

• Science fund raisers

• Science policy-makers

• Presidents

• Politicians

• Lobbyists

• Entrepreneurs

• Venture Capitalists

• Investors

• Advertisers

• Teachers

• Consumers

• Doctors

• Patients

• Medical insurers

• Journalists

• PR consultants

• Broadcasters

• Film makers

• Playwrights

• Museum curators

• Bloggers

To share their enthusiasm with others

To “pay back” to society

To educate the next generation of scientists

To earn money or fame

To win research grants

To satisfy the requirements of grant-givers

To advance particular ideas or theories

To pursue arguments with opponents

To define particular scientific fields or disciplines

To persuade policy-makers and funders to support particular areas of research

To pursue arguments with opponents

To define particular scientific fields or disciplines

To persuade policy-makers and funders to support particular areas of research

• Communicating science effectively needs more than facts

• Fake news seems to be a new phenomenon, but fake science news is not new
  • especially relevant in medical biology

• Alternative facts have plagued science for decades

“My friends told me I shouldn’t take these toxic drugs — I should use natural medicine instead.”

“We were going to save up to buy a water alkaliniser. Could we alkalinise the water she’s given in hospital?”

“What if I just take turmeric instead? My son said it’s as good as the drugs.”

Patients with cancer who rejected conventional anticancer treatments (surgery, hormone therapy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy) in favor of alternative medicine were two-and-a-half times less likely to be alive after five years.

• Business strategies that include social media can help health industry companies to take a more active, engaged role in managing individuals’ health.

• Organizations should coordinate integrate information from the social media space and connect with their customers in more meaningful ways that provide value and increase trust.
  • better positioned to meet needs of consumers

• Professional science communicators are important in keeping science in the public eye

• Scientists have the responsibility and the privilege to be science communicators in our daily lives, to our friends, family and neighbors

• In the modern age of communication, scientist must understand where people are coming from
  • enthusiastic about wonder cures
  • scared for their children
  • anxious about the future

• We share the same feelings, but as scientists we have a different relationship with evidence

• Why is there such a disconnect?

Scientists need to be great at communicating on 2 different levels

1. Communicating our research effectively to other scientists

2. Effective in making our science accessible to all

• Every scientists should be able to communicate the ‘hook’ of their research
  • why it matters to anyone off the street
  • we will practice this with the 3MT
  • makes you a better scientist!

Lulu Hunt Peters, Diet and Health with the key to the calories, 1918

The first successful modern diet book, selling some 2 million copies, Diet and Health introduced many people to the concept of ‘calories’